StormLord

Character: Name: Matilda Stage name: Age: 86 Gender: Female Appearance: Standard run-of-the-mill little old lady, thinning white hair, cane, and grey sweater included. Personality: Sweat and friendly to just about anyone, but old enough that she just doesn't care about what people think of what she says any more. Background: Learned this "magic card game" when her grandson showed interest about two years ago, he'd well moved past by the time she'd figured it all out, but that didn't stop her from starting to participate in the local scene more and more. Before she knew it she was hooked on the thrill of "Beating punk-ass kids at their own game". Song of choice: Disturbed - Vengeful One Deck(20/20):

Lucille recounts her placement of the ivy in the forests around the village while the Guide mentions receiving a message from Arminius saying the Goblin army is closer than expected, they'll likely be here Day after tomorrow.

"I uhh..." She sort of sighed weakly and frowned, too late now. After a second she began again slowly. "So...The Goddesses of my world are made when a mortal girl deemed 'worthy' (by some likely arbitrary cosmic force) eats something called a CPU Memory. Nobody knows when or where these Memory units appear and they always disappear shortly afterward so most of them are never even found. The Memory lets her condense Shares into a usable energy, ties her lifeforce to the Shares, and lets her channel them activate a Hard Drive Divinity to transform into an avatar better equipped for most of her divine powers." She paused for a second, considering something before pressing on. "The thing is most HDD forms cause a minor personality shift, usually something to make the girl act more regal, or mature, more like the higher power she's using. Sometimes though it causes more of a personality swing, one of the Goddesses for instance is normally ditsy and air-headed, but becomes sadistic and torturous when she transforms." Spicy HG took a deep breath and looked up very seriously at Mitsurugi. "I have one of these CPU Memories, but my HDD form makes me take on an entirely different personality, one that scares me almost as much as the people She tries to kill. Remember I mentioned Goddesses fighting in something called the Console War? Well the first Goddess I met tried to crush my skull against the concrete with a five ton hammer, before so much as saying 'Hello'." She took a moment to adjust herself, having gotten a little worked up by the end there. She continued much more softly and with a slight frown. "I know I shouldn't have assumed you'd be anything like that, but fighting in a big group like this I can already feel some of my powers returning, making Her stronger, and I don't want to accidentally let Her have control. I'm not sure if I'd be able to wrest it back before She dealt permanent damage to something or...someone."

Not!Xaldin has arrived.

Not much happened over the evening, the adventuring crew sat and ate their spoils. [88] Afterward they go looking for one more island and manage to find one similar in description to the first just as it's getting dark. Notable differences are that the inside of the building is softly illuminated and there are more trees around this island, it's also very slightly larger in diameter. Satomi starts construction on the south wall while Arminius spreads the sad news of Calvera's departure. Lucille plants a tree in the town center(it's already over six feet tall) and starts work on spreading her strange ivy around the outside of town. The Dryad turns Leo's fuck up into a thin slurry of unidentifiable matter.

Spicy HG gave a slight, if genuine, smile. "Hey, what are friends for? And I think you helped me a little more than you're giving yourself credit for." She shifted a little awkwardly, she hadn't expected to *meet* another Goddess, much less be on decent speaking terms with her. "Anyway, no not really. Plenty of people choose to put their faith in multiple Goddesses, especially when there is some sort of threat that causes them to work together instead of squabbling in the Console wars, but that's just politics. It's just that there is only so much someone can do before they have to start giving up important things to worship any more, like sleep or food."

"I don't know what an 'Astartes' or a 'Techmarine' is but I don't like the sound of the words 'Terminator' or 'Sorcerer' being used to describe something that we would have to fight in multiples of five. Even with the rest of the group Harry, Proditor, and I are from we'll definitely need to grow some before we even consider returning to your world." He was sounding more like Ignia every day, willing to fight for any hopeless rebel cause that might have the off chance of improving whatever world they were on. In fact she'd probably jump at the chance to help out, and say "I told you so" while she was at it. Tempest would probably help too, though she'd take some convincing that is was a good enough cause to break that many rules. "I've also got some friends that might be able to lend us a hand with that or other problems later down the line."

Spicy HG snapped herself back into focus to reply after a second or two of thought. "It's umm, exactly that, Shares are really just a fancy way of measuring faith. Generally in a percentage too, so like if half the population of an area was channeling their faith into a Goddess she would have fifty percent of the Shares of that area." Of course, with four or more active at once any of the Goddesses getting even 30% of the Shares would've given her a notable advantage over the others. Not that it really mattered anymore she guessed, she was here and either way something had been happening on the mainland. Three new Goddesses out of nowhere allying with Plutia of all people and a rogue terrorist group actively antagonizing them. Things would definitely be different by the time she got home again.

Tim shugged at Tiffany's dismissal. "Whatever you say. Though I still think it would be a good idea to set you up with some alchemical energy condensers so this--" He gestured around at her ruined state "--doesn't happen again." Tim turned and went back to fiddling with the little box he made before.

Frigus thought while listening to Rachel speak. Her homeworld really did sound horrible, and surely it was already drowning in the depths of the Realm of Darkness. "Certainly we'll find something in our travels to help with that. Once we've grown some and are confident in our powers we may very well be able to return to your world and revive or heal this Emperor and Vulkan you speak of." Complete speculation of course, he had no clue what their actual state was and ten thousand years was a long time to be nearly dead, even if they did somehow revive them would they still be the same person? It was a moot point right now anyway he supposed, they were here and not there and didn't have the ability to do anything noteworthy if there weren't.

Frigus thought for a second, cranial explosions was oddly specific and while he wasn't familiar with that he did know of some magics that would famously eat the hearts and souls of reckless users. "Well my magic won't cause heads to explode unless that's the point or...Hmm. There are beings called the Heartless, they won't make your head explode but commanding them and using their powers eventually causes even the strongest to falter and convert to one of them. They're one of the threats to the worlds I was originally trained to help deal with." He sincerely hoped whatever this Warp was they wouldn't have to deal with it until they were far more powerful than they were now.

After completing his new Keychain Frigus just sat and listened to the whole long conversation on Nader and Rachel's paranoia, totalitarianism vs other forms of government, and eventually more details on the other's personal worlds. While he didn't exactly think totalitarianism was right he wasn't exactly supposed to make any comments on that sort of thing. People tend to get tense or even angry when you question or disagree with their way of life(Proof in that very conversation, though they kept things very relaxed and civil.) and a shouting match over something so insignificant would've been less conducive to working together than biting your tongue and moving on even if you disagree. Moving on from that and Rachel started talking about the darker forces of her own world. Now that was something interesting. He'd never encountered or heard of anything quite as....insidious as this "Warp" she described and its Gods. The Heartless or Nobodies and their respective realms maybe, or "the Force" that Mirri had spoken of. Her uses of the term "Psyker" lent themselves to relating to anything that seemed vaguely magical or supernatural in origin as well. "That's an impressive list you've got there. I've done a lot of digging on a lot of different worlds and nothing I've found has ever had something like that, a few similar things come to mind, such as the creatures we've been sent to defend against, but nothing quite as powerful, insidious, and directly controlled as that." He paused, long enough for Rachel and the others to get used to another person having interjected into the conversation. "Sorry for jumping in without warning like that, it just makes me wonder what it's nature relating too the rest of the multiverse is."

Round 1: Jun’s first action: Theorywork: (Hidden) Diplomacy check: 24 vs 11, Jun’s attempt to stop the fighting causes the Matriarch to pause and the other Harpies to thus hesitate, keeping them from being quite in range. Toshrio’s attack cannot be performed due to a lack of targets. The Matriarch’s responds with an odd sort of chirp/mumble. Diplomatic Experience result: 23, The matriarch is agitated and distrusting. The other Harpies continue to pause. (21 vs 19/26) Leo’s intimidation seems to cause a disturbance with the lesser Harpies, but doesn’t phase the Matriarch and if anything only serves to anger her. Rivers prepares a devastating attack. Jun’s second action: Theorywork: (Hidden) Diplomacy: 24 vs 24, Jun uses her smooth words to convince the Harpy Matriarch to stand down unless the party does something the anger them(stealing everything on the island, attacking one of them, etc.) Combat has ended for now and the Harpies are returning to the island.

After collecting their spoils the crew gathers back at the WeatherLight, pulls up the door, and continues on their way. Search: 17 vs 3, Random Encounter: 22, A few minutes of flying around later and the crew passes a truly massive cloud. Looking down on the cloud from above it forms a sort of bowl shape large enough to land the ship in, or it would be if it wasn't already filled with a small lake. A few bizarre creatures perch at the edge of the lake with large bird bodies and female human heads, clutching spears in their clawed feet. As the ship approaches they make a garbled combination of unintelligible speech and bird-songs before charging forward with weapons ready. Init: Status:

"More people should learn about justice. They're always so mean and try to take us away, Daddy, the Angels, and my Sisters were the only people who were ever nice." She replied in a 'matter of fact' tone before trailing off to something more somber. She blinked once, slowly. "You're not like the other Angels though. They're always asleep and singing to me and my sisters." After the mention of singing she started humming and swishing around the large needle in her hand.

She stops, looks down and thinks and carefully considers the question for a moment. "I don't...think so...?" It sounded more like an unsure question than an answer really, but she kept staring up at Lexiel with a disturbing mixture of awe, confusion, and softly glowing eyes. "What's a J-ust-iss?" Her second question was spoken with an unmistakable child-like innocence and curiosity that made Lexiel believe that she truly didn't know what the word meant.

After dealing with the piled up dirt and rubble Tim went back to his circle, he needed to make a solar collection array and this was just the exc-- time to get the job done. He pulled several strange crystals, glowing rocks, some cut stones and glass, and a few drops of Mercury to construct the thing with. A few minutes later and he had a small block of a machine, something was a little off and made it heat up after working for a while, but nothing that couldn't be fixed later. He set the machine down and looked up when the giant metal hill started talking again, only this time they could actually understand it. "Excuse me. Tiffany? If you're able to do so a list of what raw materials you need to complete repairs along with samples of anything more...exotic. I should be able to set something up to provide said materials in mass."

After adjusting the ships course back in the right direction the party comes across a large floating land mass that looks like it was torn right out of the ground. It's mostly made up of dirt but the odd patch of stone or ore is visible in the lower portions. The upper portion of the island is covered in lush grass with flowers and various other plants including two small trees. The whole thing is about 100 meters across with a large domed structure in the middle, four grey brick paths lead out from open arches in the building along the four cardinal directions. The structure itself is made of bright yellow and blue metallic materials, it looks empty but well kept.

Round 3: Jun appears behind Leo to get some healing, Leo channels 5 mana into blood to heal Jun for 7 HP. The Nimbus surges lightning across the battlefield again. Jun dodges, taking no damage and avoiding more stat drain. Leo takes 9 damage and loses two Dex until the end of combat. Az takes 5 damage and loses two Str until the end of combat. Rivers keeps chugging along with her wind needles, dealing another 9 damage. Toshiro swaps items and gains 8 HP form being in the WeatherLight. Jun fires her bow, dealing 32 damage to the cloud. The Nimbus sends a trailing blast of lightning arcing at Rivers, it jolts her for 19 damage. Leo heals himself for 7 HP and summons four lances of reflective mana, spending 9 mana total. Random Blitz: 41, The lances fly towards the monster, lodging themselves somewhere deep inside the mass of clouds. Bright lights and chains of lightning start flying out of the monster’s core, causing it’s perpetual expression of anger to suddenly shift to panic as it started looking down at itself. As the lights and buzz of electricity got brighter and louder Jun had the good sense to(instead of shooting again) grab Leo and Rivers and pull them back into the ship. The ship was rattling and shaking now, the clouds of the creature barely visible. Az took the plinky excuse for a weapon that he’d been given and threw it at the mass of lightning, dealing 11 damage, before ducking for cover from the oncoming explosion. A second after the doors closed an explosion powerful enough to rock the ship was felt and heard. Upon leaving the ship at looking at the aftermath the party found little amiss aside from a few new(and very large) soot stains. Out in the skies around the ship could now be seen a number of small cloud-like creatures not unlike the one that had just attacked them. They played with small arcs of electricity that bounced between each other, one could be seen eating a bird, but they all generally moved away from the ship. Two items were found on the deck of the ship, the first was the assault rifle Az threw at the monster, now scorched, scarred, and fused in places, the magazine is fused inplace and the barrel glows with a yellowish aura. Pulling the trigger causes bolts of lightning to be fired at a rapid pace instead of bullets. The second item was a long silver rod with a golden lightning bolt on one end. Channeling power into the item causes it to call down a massive bolt of lightning wherever the user wishes, it has a long cooldown though. Final Status: Rewards:

"On my world we call it 'Sharicite', it's made be a Goddess or their Oracle by condensing the Share energy from the Goddess's followers." She stopped for a second to let Mitsurugi process that and to think for herself before speaking again, this time a tad bit more hesitant, and offering up the crystals again. "I want you to have it, because I think you will be able to do more good with it than I can." Technically true, she couldn't do anything with them, and she sure wasn't going to let the other one have free reign with them. Not after what she'd proven herself capable of in the past.

After grabbing her weapon and a few of the stray pieces of left over gold Spicy HG made her way back to the Courtyard to search for Mitsurugi. A quick check revealed her absence so Spicy HG moved on to look in the Barracks, as luck would have it she caught Mitsurugi stepping out of a side room and making her way around a large gathering of people. Spicy HG stepped to the side and waited to stop Mitsurugi with as much distance between them and the others as possible. "Hey. Mitsurugi, I just wanted to thank you for talking earlier...and give you something I think you could use more than I can." She reached into her pocket and pulled out two tiny golden crystals, octahedrons with an opalescent sheen, each about the size of a fingernail. Pure faith energy crystallized into a physical form. She gave a bit of a half hearted smile, trying to brush of the shear suspiciousness of this.

Round 2: Jun quickly puts away her sword and Toshiro stands stock still, paralyzed from the sudden shock. The Nimbus unleashes more roiling lightning, hitting Jun, Toshiro, and Leo. Jun and Toshiro each take 1 damage and lose 2 Dex until the end of combat. Leo takes 7 damage and loses 2 Syn until the end of combat. Rivers deals 7 more damage with her wind needle. Upon entering the WeatherLight Toshiro finds several warning lights flashing and the large pile of weapons, but other than that nothing is amiss. Jun pulls out her copper bow. Leo charges his spell, overloading it with mana. As the blast of wind whips around the ship it freezes the clouds and water vapor it passes through instantly, causing a light dusting of snow to appear and several large ice spikes to generate inside the storm. It slams into the side of the Nimbus for 41 cold damage. StoneHeart Lacerates the cloud again, the previous instance ticks as well dealing a total of 3 damage. Jun follows up by drawing back her bow and firing an arrow. The arrow flies true, charged with pure aesthetic energies, and crits for a whopping 62 damage! Az continues blasting the monster with DAKKA, dealing 9 damage. The monster becomes Enraged from its wounds. Lightning pulses over the Nimbus' body and clouds reform around it as it gains 22 HP. Init: Status:

A girl, no more than say eight or nine? Could be seen wandering through the Courtyard, clutching a large syringe and wearing an old, slightly small sundress smeared with blood. She didn't seem phased in the slightest by the horror and dead all around, in fact she was skipping and singing some non-sense song in....French? Probably French, every now and then she'd swap in an English word or stop abruptly, think for a moment, and continue singing. Her eyes were glossed over with a silvery glow and her voice seemed to have multiple tones to it, echoing in on itself even as she spoke in way no normal voice should. All in all it was a strange combination of childhood innocence and morbid existence that danced across the Courtyard like a ghost. Eventually she found her way to the makeshift poker table where sat Lexiel, Grant, and others. After walking around the table enough for Lexiel to come into full view the girl suddenly stopped. She stood and stared at Lexiel, mouth open slightly, for a couple uncomfortable seconds before finally words came back to her. "Y-you look like an angle....but...but you can't be...wha-who..are...you?" She spoke softly, or at least more so than when she was singing and she had a confused and concerned look on her face, like something truly just went wrong in her little world.

Spicy HG: "Well at least no one got hurt...uhh, much." She glanced over at the bite mark left on Solomon's hand. "I wish I had something for that, but I don't. I'm sure there are plenty of healers around you could go talk to." She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then slightly concerned. "There are plenty of healers around right? I mean, what kind of inter-dimensional adventuring party would we be without extra healers?" She gave a short, somewhat forced, laugh. "Anyway, I think I should go see if I can find a storm goddess now. Need any other help first?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Friedhold: Friedhold peak in interest when Mira mentioned "Her own" before replying to her question. "I do not have very much I am afraid. I cannot produce it myself and under normal circumstances it would be extracted from certain sea slugs. Normally she--" At that point he turned to gesture at something behind him, only to reveal...nothing. An empty space. He stared for a second in confusion, followed by a brief flash of something worse, and then the straightening out of his expression. "--Ah. Yes. She must have simply wandered off while I was working. Either way, the girl with me has a curious anomalous property of being able to extract ADAM from the corpses of the recently deceased. A process which can normally only be done if the subject has had ADAM introduced into their system before death, but she is capable of regardless." He gave a feint smile after clearly trying to gloss over the morbid nature of what he had just described, suddenly remembering that not everyone had the same level of acceptance on the subject as he did.